Exhibition: Against the Rules

The issue of gay and lesbian participation in sport is still a taboo subject that is usually only talked about behind closed doors, but rarely discussed in the open. There is hardly a single area of society in which the participation of homosexuals seems as abnormal as in sport.

Even though society’s attitudes to sexuality have changed, the assumption still remains that sport and homosexuality do not mix; lesbians and gay men are still largely ignored or openly rejected in sport.

However, the situation is slowly changing. Various social developments like the fact that sport is becoming a leisure activity rather than a form of physical training, the emancipation of women, the emergence of a gay and lesbian movement are starting to have an impact on sport, with the result that, even here, homosexuality can no longer be swept completely under the carpet.

Against the Rules – Lesbians and Gays in Sport, an exhibition originally presented by the Ministry for Youth, Family and Health of the North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) regional government and organised jointly by SC Janus, Cologne’s Centrum Schwule Geschichte (Gay History Centre) and others. The exhibit was updated by the European Gay & Lesbian Sport Federation (EGLSF) in 2010 and translated into English. The exhibition, opened on May 4, 2010 in Berlin, does not claim to be exhaustive, but aims to help remove the taboos from the subject of homosexuality and sport, and draw attention to the various forms of discrimination against sexual minorities in sport.

“Against the Rules” at Pride House 2012 is presented by the EGLSF with the financial support of the European Commission (DG Education and Culture) as part of the project coordinated by the European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation on “Preventing and Fighting Homophobic Violence in Sport”.